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Legislation that would push a federal deadline on positive train control implementation to 2020 has been unveiled by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. The proposal, which AAR has praised, is expected to extend an earlier arranged date for PTC application by five years. "This bill ensures that safety for rail passengers and secure freight transportation remains a priority while the [Federal Railroad Administration] moves forward in implementing PTC," said Thune.

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Congressional leaders are considering a trade-off that would include lifting the ban on crude oil exports in exchange for extending the wind energy Production Tax Credit, say observers. "It looks increasingly like those two are becoming conflated in a single negotiation," Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Tuesday. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., said there might be some Democratic support for such a deal.

Legislation that would push a federal deadline on positive train control implementation to 2020 has been unveiled by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. The proposal is expected to extend an earlier arranged date for PTC application by five years. "This bill ensures that safety for rail passengers and secure freight transportation remains a priority while the [Federal Railroad Administration] moves forward in implementing PTC," Thune said.

The U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation and Export Promotion held a hearing Wednesday to discuss positive train control implementation and delays in meeting the 2015 deadline. At the meeting, several lawmakers expressed concern about the regulation. "I think it's important that we, as Congress, be careful not to impose undue regulation on the railroad industry, especially if these regulations force the railroads to spend money that might otherwise be used for needed infrastructure improvements," said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.

Scott Wood, a power technician with Danotek Motion Technologies, writes that Congress should extend the renewable-energy Production Tax Credit so that the wind-energy industry can continue to grow and create jobs. "There are many workers like me in Michigan who have had a hard time finding a steady and rewarding job, and we need a lot more companies like Danotek with factories building major components for wind turbines that can generate an endless supply of clean, renewable energy for this country. And for that to happen, both large and small wind companies need business certainty to be able to make investments in America and hire new American workers -- which brings us back to the PTC," he writes.

The uncertainty over the renewable-energy Production Tax Credit is driving both MidAmerican Energy Holdings' purchase of 407.1 megawatts of new wind power capacity in Iowa and Vestas Wind Systems' threat to eliminate up to 1,600 jobs from its U.S. workforce, writes columnist Herman K. Trabish. MidAmerican's wind projects in Iowa are slated to go online by the end of the year, making them eligible for the PTC, said Vice President of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Jonathan Weisgall. Meanwhile, Vestas' announcement "shows the danger to U.S. manufacturing jobs if Congress waits any longer to extend the PTC," said American Wind Energy Association CEO Denise Bode.